Donors Pledge $4.4 Billion in Aid for Syria, Neighboring Countries.

International
donors will pledge $4.4 billion dollars in humanitarian aid for Syria and
neighboring countries that have sheltered refugees this year, a senior U.N.
official says. But the pledges are significantly less than the more than $7
billion the United Nations was seeking.

U.N. Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs chief Mark Lowcock announced the
pledges Wednesday at an international donor conference in Brussels. Lowcock
said additional pledges of $3.3 billion for 2019 are expected, but more money
is needed for humanitarian purposes in Syria and to assist refugees in nearby
countries.

"The key
issue is to make sure ... priority is given to those in most need and those
most vulnerable," said Lowcock, noting that Britain and Germany made the
largest pledges. Some 450,000 people have been killed in Syria since President
Bashar al-Assad's 2011 crackdown on protesters calling for his ouster.

The United
Nations says more than 13 million Syrians need humanitarian aid and about
one-fourth of them have been displaced in neighboring countries such as Jordan,
Lebanon and Turkey. The United Nations says more than 700,000 people have been
displaced this year as al-Assad has escalated attacks against rebel forces,
intensifying the humanitarian crisis.

The European
Union, which hosted the conference, had hoped the meeting of more than 80
countries, aid organizations and agencies would stimulate stalled U.N. peace
initiatives, in addition to raising humanitarian aid.